Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

A 63-year-old victim says three men rushed into his home after one of them rang the doorbell and pretended to be looking for someone at the house. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012)

Updated at 11:19 PM CDT on Wednesday, Nov 21, 2012

A Balch Springs man was severely beaten on Monday morning in his house.

Roberto Benevides said he heard the doorbell just before 6 a.m. and thought it was his son, who had just left for work. Instead, it was a man he didn't recognize, asking for someone named "Enrique."

"He was looking for an Enrique at this address and I said, 'I don't know any Enrique,'" he said.

But before the 63-year-old could close the door, the man pushed it open and rushed in -- along with two other men who were hiding out of sight.

"I tried to block my face, but he started hitting me, but then the other two came in, also hitting me in the face and the head," Benevides said.

The men knocked Benevides down, but not before breaking his nose and bruising five of his ribs. Benevides, a retired border patrol officer, said he tried to fight one of the men off until another man came over and threatened him.

"That's when I was trying to wrestle with the guy that was holding me down, when he told the other two, 'One of you help me. This viejo is trying to get up,'" Benevides said. "And that's when the guy
said, 'You try to get up and look at our face or what? You do that, and I'll pop you.'"

The threat convinced Benevides to stay on the floor.

The men took a 60-inch TV but never went upstairs, where Benevides' wife, son and two other family members were resting. Benevides said he is grateful that the men didn't decide to go upstairs.

"The material items, they can be replaced," he said. "But threatening my family or taking my son with them or my wife with them when they left -- there was no way I could stop them."

Balch Springs police released a composite sketch of the man who rang the doorbell. He's described as a young Hispanic man who is about 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 to 160 pounds with light skin and light brown hair. Benevides said the man spoke Spanish.

Anyone who may have seen the men in the area are asked to call Balch Springs police and ask for Detective Bird at 972-557-6014.